• News
•   October 29, 2011   

• Canada Loses Nearly Half Her Arctic Ice Shelves to Record Melts

• In a deteriorating change that is being characterized as likely irreversible, researchers at the nation's Carleton University and the University of Ottawa recently reported that the nation's millennia-old Arctic ice shelves have steeply diminished in volume due to global warming in just the past six years.
  
  They noted that during the summer of 2011 alone, Canada's largest ice shelf, the Ward Hunt, split into two, with some 3 billion tons of ice disintegrating into drifting masses.
  
  Meanwhile, the Serson Ice Shelf almost completely melted, and the frozen Ellesmere Island shrunk by 480 square kilometers.
  
  Remarking on the unprecedented loss of such natural wonders, Dr. Derek Mueller of Carleton University stated, "These unique and massive geographical features that we consider to be part of the map of Canada are disappearing and they won’t come back."
  
  During a Nov 2009 video conference in Washington, D.C., USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the disturbing consequences of climate change in the Arctic and other areas, as well as what must be done to safeguard these precious landforms: 
  
  "In the Arctic, North Pole, so much ice has already melted that scientists are forecasting an ice-free summer within as little as 3-6 years, which would be the first time in one million years - first time in one million years!
  
  Glaciers across the globe are shrinking more quickly than researchers ever expected, leaving rivers and lakes gone, disappearing or drying, with no water for crops and billions who face food shortages due to water shortages, as well.
  
  You may ask, what is the main cause of this damage and destruction to the environment? Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not the coal industry or cars or planes or trains or boats or ships. It’s methane, which is produced primarily by the livestock industry.
  
  So, sir, to solve this, we do need to move quickly. Be vegan."
  
  http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0928-hance_canada_shelves.html
  http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110928/arctic-ice-shelves-110928/20110928/?hub=EdmontonHome
  http://www.earthweek.com/2011/ew111007/ew111007b.html
  http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/09/30/333277/canadas-ice-shelves-continue-rapid-disintegration